We’re crippled by a risk we can’t even quantify

Share via

Even the best economic scenario needs drastic action. The worst is so bad not even the City dares price the danger

Tuesday’s Balls v Osborne debate in Parliament descended far too quickly, for my liking, into “my bank levy’s bigger than yours”. On the brink of economic disaster, two of the best minds of my generation ended up scrapping over small change.

Yet Britain’s problems are dwarfed by what is happening offstage, in Europe. The scariest part of this week’s downbeat growth forecasts was not that the UK economy is now at “stall speed”, though that is worrying enough. Nor was it that the Chancellor has had to deepen his public spending cuts in response. It was the Office for Budget